Decatur Photographer – Page 2

February 22, 2018February 21, 2018

| Dynagraphics INC | Wood Printing | Small Businesses Decatur IL |

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The Details: Scott Bowers, Vice President of Sales or Dynagraphics, INC / Wood Printing | In Business: Since 1980

Hours: Monday-Friday 8:00-5:00| Location: 3220 N Woodford St. Decatur IL | Phone: 876.9950 | Website: www.dynagraphics.com

Tell us about your business… What do you do?

In 1980, my parents, Richard “Barry” and Melanie Bowers, purchased Promo Graphics, a screen printing company that produced retail sign kits for 65 Eisner Foods (Jewel) stores. My brother David and I worked with our parents from the start. As teenagers, David operated screen printing and offset presses and I worked in the bindery department. In 1988 the company purchased state-of-the-art quick printing equipment that allowed faster turnaround and lower cost, and the Fast Impressions division was born. We’ve since added equipment for short-run full-color posters, displays, vehicle wraps, full-color signage, outdoor graphics, and a Zund G3 cutter for shape cutting everything from paper to aluminum. Then in recent years we acquired local printer, Wood Printing, expanding our print capability greatly and enabling us to provide all of your printing and graphics needs in one place.

What makes your business unique/special?

We’re known for doing work on a very short deadline. And, our customer service is second to none – when there’s a problem we do everything to make it right.

What item/service on your menu or in your shop do you just LOVE and think everyone needs?

I really like our architectural graphics and custom wallpaper.

I was lucky enough to be at Dynagraphics for their feature on a day they were printing Thrive Entertainment Guide. It was super cool to see how crazy fast this press runs (and fun to crank my shutter speed super high to try to catch a glimpse of what was nearly impossible to see with the naked eye). Plus, it just so happened to be the issue that had our full page senior ad on the back … there was a huge PILE of sjp seniors, pretty awesome to see in person!

In what way have you gone above/beyond in the past for a customer?

We did a job for Huston-Patterson, and in order to make a deadline we chartered a plane to Pennsylvania.

What is the coolest thing you’ve ever had a client do for you?

We’ve had many clients make introductions to friends and colleagues. When we remodeled we received flower arrangements. And we have so much support whenever we have an open house, such as Refreshment Services Pepsi providing a fountain.

What tool/equipment/or other vendor could you not imagine doing business without?

We love Midland Paper; their service is great.

What other local business do you just LOVE? Why?

Perry Products – their offering is quite unique. They do Perry suspenders; they’re inventors.

When did you know you wanted to go into this business?

I worked for my folks, I didn’t really have a choice (laughs). I’ve worked here all but four years.

What are you passionate about outside of your business?

My children, my relationship with God and my church family.

Describe your PERFECT day:

Nice weather, a Saturday to be able to sleep in. Maybe be able to do something outside, with the people I love close by.

Introduce us to your STAFF…

See the latest news at:

http://www.dynagraphics.com/

See our other past small business features to connect with more businesses in our area:

See more on our Facebook Page and follow us on Twitter @sjanephotog, Instagram @sjanephotograhy, and Snapchat @sjanephotog

If you’d like to have YOUR small business featured for FREE on the SJP blog (or know a small business we should feature) you can find details HERE! These features are 100% free and we’d love to feature you next.

January 2, 2018December 27, 2017

| Conn Family | Fall Family Portraits Decatur IL |

I now get to show off one of my favorite families, the Conn Family! You may remember Liz & Justin’s beautiful wedding day at the Millikin Homestead and their first family portraits here last year.

These poor guys froze their booties off last year with a crazy windy cold day so this year was a treat with mild weather and a beautiful day for their session! We even had some lovely fall colors even in mid-November for our Limited Edition sessions.

I’m a big fan of their card design and hope it filled their friends/family mailboxes with some smiles this year.

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family christmas cards, cards, card designs, holiday cards, best card designs 2017, christmas cards, do you sent christmas cards Believe it or not we’re rolling out our 2018 Limited Edition session dates already! So if a quick and easy 15/30 minute session sounds perfect for your hectic schedules head over to our store to pre-purchase your session and reserve your spot. We host ONLY 4 Limited Edition session dates per year and have as few as 5-10 sessions available at each one.

October 3, 2017October 3, 2017

| Jamie + Mike | Married! |

Today, I get to share Jamie & Mike’s wedding (album) with you all! I cannot tell you how much I loved working with these two. You might remember their super fun SNOW engagement/family session… well their wedding day was quite the opposite weather-wise but still full of even more fun and love. These two got the perfect sunny spring day (which was good since their ceremony was outside at the beautiful Fletcher Park Pavilion.

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decatur il wedding photographer, weddings, decatur, illinois weddings, central il wedding, photographer, sarah jane photography, mt zion, mt zion convention center, fletcher park pavilion, Congratulations you two and THANK YOU so much for sharing your day with me.

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Ceremony: Fletcher Park Pavillion

Reception: Mt. Zion Convention Center

August 24, 2017August 24, 2017

| Payton | Argenta-Oreana High School Senior Model | Class of 2018 | Decatur, IL |

The first of our class of 2018 senior model s to make their debut on the blog is our very own Ms. Payton!

2017-08-17_0003 You may remember her first moment in the SJP spotlight way back for her sophomore year prom when she won the Neuhoff media prom package which included a prom-day shoot with her date Austin (and we included him in a few of her senior portraits too)!

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From there it wasn’t long before Payton was working as my assistant and modeling for me on a few projects including our parachute dress class in downtown Indianapolis with the Reset Conference. She’s even charmed our own little #BabyB and got to be her swim lesson teacher at fairview pool this summer!

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So basically Payton has become a pretty awesome part of the SJP family (at home and work!) so it seemed fitting she be the first one up on the blog to kick off the class of 2018’s senior year.

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Do you guys remember the ‘trash can image’ ?!? Austin joked when we got out of the car at the park that we had a great location right by the dumpster soooo I accepted that as a challenge to create something fun by it and this was the result:

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Things have been BUSY around here all summer and I have SO many awesome things to show you from all our seniors… so let’s not wait! Check out all of Payton’s favorite images right here right now.

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This year Payton was even named All American Cheerleader! Big congrats for kicking off your senior year with such an achievement.

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And don’t forget to head over to her facebook album to give her some love.

May 17, 2017January 30, 2018

| Recent Album Designs | Seniors, Families & Weddings: More than Images, Heirloom Designs |

Oops we’re a day late on my usual Tuesday blog post but I promise it’s worth it with a LOT of images/albums to check out today!

I know it’s kinda odd to do a ‘look back’ post as we are smack dab in the middle of the year BUT a photographer’s year is odd and not really broken up in the usual Jan-December flow of most. Instead, those of us who photograph seniors often think in school years too so May is always another ending/beginning for me as we say congratulations and farewell to our class of 2017 graduates and welcome in the next class of 2018!

Right now in the midst of finishing up album designs, graduation cards and booking summer family sessions for our 2017 grads I thought it would be fun to look back at one of my favorite products, our custom-designed albums!

Every year (and honestly every album) I try to push myself to try something new, find a new design element, work in a classic item in a new way or even invent/design a new element from scratch. Why? Because I want your album to be as unique as a fingerprint… as unique as you are!

Of course I LOVE our albums for our high school senior clients since these are often our longest sessions with the most locations and outfit changes an album just makes sense to show off everything we’ve created for you. This year we broke our record for most images in an album with over 100 (previously 86 was our record for a non-wedding album!). What other way can you show off, protect and share over 100 of your favorite images?!?! Unless you’re up for wallpapering your house (challenge me, I’m game haha) I think the album is the perfect way to show off everything we created for you!

Next let’s check out our family albums for 2016! Just like our senior albums, our family albums give us a chance to show off all the different images we created which for families means all the individuals, ones with just the kids, etc. You’re all dressed up and ready for session already so our family sessions include MORE than just the whole family images… we take a few minutes to focus on each kiddo for updated portraits of them, plus show off every relationship in your family like momma with kids, dad with kids, siblings together AND the relationship that started it all mom+dad (sometimes it’s been YEARS since you guys have had a portrait together yourselves).

Oh and don’t forget the family PETS!

While we do a handful of individual session albums for families we also offer (and are in the midst of) planning for many heirloom albums that showcase not just one session from one year but all your annual sessions (typically in 5 or 10 year segments). Can you imagine… flipping through one album as your baby grows from an infant into a bubbly toddler then into a big kindergartener… then on and on through middle school awkwardness and into young adults through high school and on?! What a gift for the kids to have once they graduate college and start their own families, it’s like they are finally aloud to check those sites like imgsexy.com and start being adults!

And I love to tell the beginning of your love story starting with your engagement portraits! We often design these albums as guestbooks which simply means we leave some blank spaces for your guests to sign and add their own notes and well-wishes to your album. Always remember who was there to help you celebrate your big day!

Obviously you’ve seen that albums aren’t just for weddings anymore BUT they are still our favorite products for our wedding clients too! Talk about an heirloom piece. Our most popular wedding albums are stunning hand made albums printed in Italy and published with unique image covers including metal and glass prints!